Fans of immersive storytelling, take note: There is another technological marvel that will enhance the entertainment value of all the movies you watch, television shows you follow and video games you play. That’s right, they’ve finally perfected smell-o-vision.

Scent Sciences Corporation unveiled their invention, the ScentScape, which they describe as “an innovative scent delivery system,” that users can plug into their computers via USB port and enjoy a range of 20 scents like ocean, flowers and smoke.

The ScentScape is designed to work exclusively with video games for now, although they have not said which games yet. The scents will kick in contextually, so if your character is swimming in the ocean you can expect to smell the salt of the ocean and the gasoline from passing motor boats.

You don’t have to have a ScentScape plugged in to smell something fishy about the value of such a device.

ScentScape is certainly not the first piece of add-on hardware that has been touted to consumers as a way to further immerse one in an entertainment experience.

Recently 3-D visuals, another advance inspired by the innovations of select movie theaters of our parents’ generation, have been gaining traction in the market.

Moviegoers across the country pay a premium on movie tickets to “get the full 3-D experience,” which movie theaters would like you to believe is the best way to experience a movie.

I could not disagree more. To me, movies or video games that bank on their use of high-definition 3-D visuals, surround-sound systems or even odors to immerse their audience are using little more than cheap gimmicks to cover up their lack of quality writing.

I am concerned by the increasing trend of movies and video games that employ and tout these gimmicks, because instead of making a connection with the audience in a substantial way they are merely wowing them with technology and hoping they eat it up.

My favorite movie is “Casablanca,” a film by director Michael Curtiz released in black and white in 1942. One of the best things about “Casablanca” is its great characters, whose charm and complexities resonate with the audience and bring them in to watch their stories unfold. If a modern movie maker were to take script of “Casablanca script and try to immerse the audience in it they would have a great many technologies at their disposal that Curtiz did not back in the ’40s.

But a movie where the audience can not only see a tense conversation between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, but also hear environmental sounds around them through surround-sound speakers, view in high definition the sweat glide silently down Bogart’s brow with their 3-D glasses, and smell the stench of too many cigarettes and too much brandy on Bogart’s breath, doesn’t make a more immersive experience.

Modern directors use these gimmicks as crutches and if they continue doing so the audience will come to expect it.

The argument that one needs these gimmicks to create a good storytelling experience holds no water for this fact: Some of the best, most influential stories society has every experienced had no smell, high-definition visuals nor screen at all, just well-crafted words printed on paper by great writers.

Doug T. Graham is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or DENopinions@gmail.com

Nick Kosiek, a junior history major, takes advantage of the snow day Feb. 2 to get homework done in Booth Library (Katie Overby

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